


27 August, 463

by Rambling_Museums



Series: Revieved May 463/The Delegates' Drama [5]
Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce, PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Animals, Birds, Cats, Dog yelps but everything is off screen, Dogs, Gen, Like very minor, Off Screen animal cruelty, Or something new to talk about, Tris is SO Done with parties, Weather Magic, Wind scrying, a horse - Freeform, making new friends, my kingdom for a horse, somebody give her a book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22091971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rambling_Museums/pseuds/Rambling_Museums
Summary: Tris knew this visit would go one of three ways: boring, academically interesting, or deadly. To be honest, she wasn't sure which out of boring or deadly she'd have preferred.
Series: Revieved May 463/The Delegates' Drama [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1472684
Comments: 9
Kudos: 117





	27 August, 463

**Author's Note:**

> Time Jump! Between August 13 and August 27, our heroes have made their way to Corus. Daine was Spelt Diane for most of this, if I missed any in my rapid corrections please let me know.

As the weeks passed Tris’ patience for court parties and noble hunts waned. There was only so much bowing and fawning a practical weather witch could handle after all. The duke’s court in Summersea never made such a fuss over something as simple as Tris visiting. But here in the capital of Tortall hardly a day went by without some special dinner or dance or games for the benefit of the visiting mages. For the benefit of Sandrilene Fa Toren.

After Briar’s magical working in the apple orchard all four mages were given greater respect by their travelling companions and a few other nobles and members of the court but few people beyond that had time to spend on Sandry’s common siblings. Tris wouldn’t have minded if she was let alone to explore the grounds or libraries. Instead she was expected, as a diplomat of Emelan, to be present at all of the parties and dinners and hunts organized by her host.

There was only so much derision the weather witch could take from the servants and younger nobles – and those older nobles that never learned to respect unknown mages’ tempers. So she tried to spend a few hours a day walking the castle walls. The landscape surrounding the Capitol was beautiful and worth careful study. To the north lay a vast forest where the hunting nobles often rode. In the past few years new walls had gone up, due to something Alanna called ‘the immortal wars’. They were well constructed and thick but the stones were new-cut and still settling. Tris did a minor magic to stabilize one section during one of her walks.

To the south lay the city of Corus and the wide river they arrived on. Even without looking on the wind it was a beautiful sight. Many temples to the Tortallan gods filled the land between the castle and the city proper. Tris often saw female warriors guarding a large, bright, impressive temple. It had at least three floors, stark white stucco, and soft honey wood exterior and a hip-high, white-and-amethyst stone fence. According to the guardsmen, that was the temple of the Great Mother Goddess and no man was allowed to enter on pain of death.

Unless the man was on trial for abusing a woman.

Tris liked that idea. She had seen a few temples with similar restrictions on her travels with Niko and found a measure of comfort in the convictions others have for their gods. She worshipped the gods of the Winding Circle like all of her family (though not all of her siblings) but her gods were not selfish. They were never displeased when Tris burnt offerings for other gods. She wondered if Tortallan gods were the jealous type.

* * *

King Jonathan gave Tris and Briar special permission to walk the walls after an unfortunate incident that resulted in a number of his guards wrapped in ropy vines and Briar, gripped by the ankle, suspended in the air with Numair’s magic fire sparkling around him. Sandry did a fair amount of fast talking while Daja thoughtfully gripped her trader staff. In the end, Briar only had to apologize to the guards and he and Tris could go on the walls as often as they liked. Tris figured they’d be given a token like the ones used in the Temple City of their youth but instead the King gave a sketch of their likenesses to the watch captains.

Ultimately Tris didn’t care how it happened the end result of fresh air and new winds were all she cared about. Tris closed her eyes and turned her nose toward Corus. She was angled to miss any winds from the temple district. Her interest was in the heart of the city that afternoon. Winds raced at her carrying snippets of conversation.

“ _... 3 crowns? That’s robbery...”_

“ _...by the goddess Nathaniel...”_

“ _...but mama,” a young voice whined, “I don’ wanna learn’t write. Don’ need it t’help da a' the Dove...”_

Tris let the sounds of the city wash over her and drown out the inane chatter that filled her head inside the castle. She sorted through the winds, casting aside some, grabbing new ones from other parts of the city until she found the sounds she sought that afternoon. Her eye’s cracked open against the bright summer sun. She squinted into the wind and the sharp image of a cloth seller’s stall that raced along it. Tris’ fingers twitched as she grabbed onto Lalasa’s Fine Lady’s Wear. The wind cooperated and Tris had time to take in the three girls working with individual shoppers who fingered fine bolts of cloth, ribbons, and other tools Tris had seen in Lark and Sandry’s workshops. She also saw the carefully stitched royal symbol: Lalasa’s had created garments for the royal family.

Tris closed her eyes and shook her head as Lalasa’s raced from her Sight. Even after years of practice, she could only scry on the wind for short periods without developing splitting headaches. She tugged on an earlobe and her connection to Sandry as she passed an image of Lalasa’s to her foster sister and continued her walk along the wall. Winds that followed her from Summersea raced about the wall and inner courts of Corus. Despite her magic, Tris didn’t know what those particular winds found so interesting about castle life. They didn’t bring her back any interesting conversations only the typical noises of mice in the kitchen garden and doves in the rafters. She always expected her Summersea winds to seek out the things that she found interesting.

“ _..._ _Stop it Fred! They’ll hang you for kicking a curr in the palace.”_ Only years of practice keeping surprise to herself kept Tris from yelping as she heard the young man’s voice. Instead of jumping like a startled kid she gripped the wind and followed along it’s route to the voices. With the Corus winds she would struggle to maintain such a journey and trot at the same time, but with the familiar Summersea winds it was no issue.

“ _Who’s going to tell? It’s just a mutt.”_ Fred’s cruel voice matched Tris’ mental picture of a man willing to kick a dog.

“ _That’s not a mutt, you idiot, I saw it with them knights that came to talk to the captain last night.”_ The dog yelped, a bird screamed, and Tris’ grip on the Summersea wind slipped. It raced off through a horse barrack. Tris let it go: she knew enough to find those two men.

* * *

Tris rounded the corner of the Kings Own Barracks at a steady trot.

What she saw there stopped her in her tracks. A small, fluffy, mostly black dog cowered against the barrack wall with a starling on it’s back. Before it were two men in black-trimmed blue tunics with dusty riding hose. There were a few spots of blood on their faces.

Between the dog and men were assorted prey birds – mostly sparrows but a few brave robins as well – three cats, and a vole. The animals were working together to keep the men where they where while staying out of range of the men’s flailing attacks. For the first time in quite a while Tris didn’t know what to do: should she try and get to the dog? It looked hurt. Would the other animals know she was trying to help? Or would they attack her too? Chime had no such qualms, she immediately joined the fray adding quite a few bloody scratches to forearms and backs.

As Tris studied the tableaux another cat, a pony, and Daine dashed around the other side of the barracks. “Cloud, go get someone.” Daine commanded. The pony, Cloud presumably, picked up speed and dashed around the building along the path that Tris took. “Thank you for getting me Peanut. Please keep those men here until Cloud gets back.” As if the cat understood she joined the other three hissing and swiping at Fred and his friend. The starling also joined the odd flock and swooped at Fred’s head screeching displeasure.

Meanwhile Daine went to the dog. Tris went too, “Is there anything I can do to help?” She offered. Her experience in animal care was mostly Shriek and Little Foot and those long-ago anatomy lessons Rosethorn gave her, but she had steady hands and could at least offer support.

“Why are you here?” Daine asked kindly.

“I heard him yelping. I don’t like people who hurt innocent animals.”

“Can you keep the men here? Those birds are almost all prey birds and I don’t like to stress them out too much if I can avoid it.” Daine bit her lip and worried her brow, “I don’t know if your magic lends itself to such things.”

“I can handle it.” Tris shrugged, “I can also call my siblings if it will help?” she offered almost shyly. After seeing the way the animals responded to Daine, Tris figured the woman knew what she was doing when she sent the pony off but the idea of people talking to animals was even stranger to Tris than her siblings’ entangled magics. Daine waved her off.

“I’ll be using some lightning. Can you ask them to move back a bit?” As far as Tris could tell Daine didn’t do anything but the animals moved anyway. They ran or flew to Daine except the vole which slipped away toward a nearby oak tree. Tris shook off the itchy feeling of oddness as she scraped a portion of atmospheric electricity out of a small braid. Chime kept up her screeching swoops as Tris carefully measured out the electricity - it wouldn't do to fry these men after all. Tris wasn't worried about Chime. With lightning for blood Chime was as immune to its effects as Tris herself.

She quickly but carefully formed a protective barrier around the thugs and sunk three deep roots into the soil. It held steady and would be simple enough to either shove the power into the soil or pull it back into her braids. Finally Chime settled on her shoulder.

Daine had the dog on her lap, a sparrow on each shoulder, and the starling on her head. She didn’t _look_ unnerved by Tris’ magic. In Tris’ mage-sight thin threads of copper fire seeped from Daine to the animals on her – the thickest going to the dog’s ribs. Tris was no healer but she assumed Daine was healing either a broken rib or a bad bruise. For a few moments there was quiet. Only the soft buzz of Tris' lightning graced her sensitive ears.

* * *

Cloud came trotting back around the Barrack trailed by Kel, jogging evenly. She wore a similar blue tunic to Tris’ captives but hers was lined in silver instead of black. Kel took a moment to observe what must have been an even odder tableaux than the one Tris found barely 20 minutes earlier. The miscreants shrunk back as much as their electric cage allowed.

“Onua said that Cloud said that some of _my_ recruits were stupid enough to hurt a dog.” Kel said as if she hadn’t just followed a horse. As if talking horses were the norm.

“Yes, this young man, Seti, was on break from his training when these two set upon him.” Daine nodded as she gentled the black dog’s paws. The starling on her head nodded too. Tris stifled a giggle, “He’s not sure which one and he’s only just come from Fief Cavall so my influence on him is not so great yet. These People,” she indicated the birds and cats still watching, “who protected him responded to his yelping and did not see an attack.”

“It was whichever one is called Fred.” Tris said without much forethought into how the Tortallans would take such a statement. She hated people who hurt poor innocent animals.

“How can you be sure of that when Seti isn’t even sure who hurt him?” Kel ask, her tone was kind but held a hint of skepticism. It momentarily reminded Tris of the Tharian mage Demakos who trusted her abilities as a mage even when he didn’t understand her (or Keth’s) magic.

“I heard them talking. It is why I ran here,” Tris explained, “I don’t like people who hurt animals.”

“They were loud enough to be heard on the walls?” Kel crossed her arms over her chest. The knight was ‘built like a moneybag’s wall’ as Briar would say. She stood nearly six feet tall at full height, had broad shoulders, and thick muscles from years of training and work as a knight in her king’s command. Tris had no doubt that Kel could back up that imposing form with entirely unmagical abilities like Daja. “The watch commander complains about people being on his walls. You go up there almost every afternoon.”

“I heard it on the winds.”

“What?”

“Do you know what Scrying is?”

“Its also called farseeing.” Daine answered instead of Kel, “Its looking in bowls of water or into crystal balls to see what’s happening in the present or future in other places.”

“Yes that is the most common form. None of my siblings can do it that way though. Daja told me she made a special metal mirror to help two young mages find their affinity, Sandry says that sometimes when she spins images appear though she has never been able to make sense of them.

"My magic, my ambient magic, is tied to weather.” She gestured to the gentle breezes that teased at her petty coats, “And so I wind-scry. It is not entirely voluntary as I will always hear what sounds are caught up by the winds but this afternoon I was looking specifically for a cloth seller’s stall in the Corus markets for Sandry – you told us about your friend Lalasa – and after that was done I let the winds run where they liked.” Tris didn’t think they needed to know about her ability to see on the wind. It was too strange even in the Western Lands where ambient magic was more common.

“A better question is how a pony told you to come over here.” Tris was pretty sure that Cloud was the only one who heard her complaint. The horse in question snapped her teeth in Tris’ direction. Tris stuck her tongue out at the horse.

“Right.” Kel nodded from Tris to the electric cage holding Fred and his buddy, “Can you let them out? I’ll need to bring them up to my lord Raoul on charges.” Tris called back the lightning and held it briefly. Just long enough to produce seed lightning along her wire rim spectacles and make Chime sparkle before feeding the ball of lightning back into her braid and tying it off. Kel nodded her thanks, “Daine, would you mind terribly getting Seti back to Owen? He told me about Seti’s training last night, apparently the dog is almost set for his final test.” With that the lady knight walked off the way she came trailed by two meek soldiers. A flash of light caught Tris' eye - Chime's neelde-like attack made contact with both of their backsides.

“Right then, young man, lets go find Sir Owen shall we?” Daine set Seti on the ground and rose without disturbing the sparrows or starling that still used her as a perch.

“Would you mind if I accompany you?”

“Not at all!” She gently brushed the birds off as they set off with only a quiet word from Daine to Seti to find his ‘place’ please, you know better than that.

**Author's Note:**

> Seti will feature in some manner in the next chapter. Not quite sure how yet but I already know what his personality and 'job' will be.


End file.
